Obama Mama Part II

I hope there are going to be many parts to this story! Last week (March 21), Barak Obama visited Oregon. Luckily, we were aware of this event in advance to register for a free ticket; the tickets 'sold out' within 24 hours. I really wanted to go... and after debating in my head whether or not I could swing it on a cold Friday morning, I decided this is a rare opportunity. Ranjeewa (love him!) said he'd stay home with Anjali while I set out to see the Man. I left the house at 6:55 am (really early for me) and caught a bus and the light rail to the Memorial Coliseum. The gates opened at 7:30 and Obama was not even supposed to be in the building till 9:30 am. At 7:20 I was in line along with thousands of people sandwiched between retired grandparents and 20 something youngsters from South Bend, IN. Then I got close to the gate and stood next to a woman and infant from Vancouver, WA. After chatting with her for a while, I noticed she was wearing dog tags, and I just blurted "was your husband in the military?" And she said yes, turned her lips down, sighed and said "and he never came back". She had a SIX month old son in her arms. I fought hard to hold back tears.... I hadn't seen Anjali that morning.
Once inside I settled on a mezzanine seat and was amazed at the 13,000 other people who also made it that morning. There were some pumped up introductions, people did the wave and chanted "yes, we can", "O-bama" just like it were a Springsteen concert. Bill Richardson and Obama came out together and the crowd went WILD. Bill gave a nice introduction, and endorsement, before Obama began to speak. I'd heard him speak before on TV and the internet, so nothing was a surprise... I was there for the crowd effect. And it was great. During a pause in his speech a woman shouted "I love you!" and he paused and said "I love you back", the crowd went wild, again. It was just amazing to see so many people of all walks of life, ethnicities etc. I met a former retired, black, cancer surviver, co-worker of mine, parents who kept their kids from going to school and took the day off to come see him, and even Anjali's pediatrician and her partner. It was really moving and I get why they call it the 'Obama effect' and I couldn't help thinking "wow... if he doesn't get the Dem. nomination what a waste of opportunity". Hope, yes we can. I do believe this guy can really make a change. He comes across as sincere and so many people feel that way. We need an outsider, not an insider. Go, Obama!
How cute is this? Ranjeewa wont let me do this to his hair!

Ikea Love

The other week I went to the new Ikea store in Portland for the FIRST time, and Oh, my! I was BLOWN away. I know its considered the WalMart of Europe (and yes everything seems to be made in China), but I was really impressed with the concept and all the cool and affordable stuff. One of the neat things we picked up was a red piggy bank for Anjali. I thought this would be a nice way to introduce her to some fiscal responsibility. But her relationship with the piggy bank was something I didn't expect. She started to baby the piggy bank to the point she lost complete interest in her favorite doll 'manike'. Here she is feeding piggy bank through its nostrils.
And the other day I hear her saying "dont cry, piggy bank; you have to be smart and beautiful and kind". She does get two coins every night from both Ranjeewa and I. Its amusing to see the gleeful expression on her face, and if one of us gives her a coin she makes sure to come and announce it to the other parent before carefully depositing it.

Polar bear, Polar bear what do you see?

I see fishes swimming beneath this ice berg. Don't you?
Baby polar bear and Thaththi polar bear are fishing here. And yeah... sometimes our bed is a giant ice berg. No global warming here!

I loved this.... This beginning stage of pretend play is so much fun. And its great to see her imagination at work. Anjali has been on a Polar bear binge, and I don't know where it all started. But last week we went to the zoo on an otherwise dreary day, and oh my the Polar bears were a treat. The two 1000lb mammoths were rolling around in the water like little cats, and we spent a good half an hour watching, squealing and giggling at their antics. Even I felt like a kid again.

SOAPBOX: No TV = more imagination?

Obama Mama Fever

Ok so just like half the population of the country, I am bitten by the Obama bug...! I have been hooked onto CNN, especially Anderson Cooper after Anjali goes to sleep. Poor Ranjeewa must think we've switched roles cause he's usually the one watching Law & Order.

I've been wanting to show my support by getting myself and Anjali Obama T-shirts from his campaign, but everything in our sizes are sold-out! Now that reflects why he raises a MILLION dollars a day... and mostly public support, mind you. So I have been thinking about making our own t-shirts, but haven't quite gotten enough 'get off the couch' enthusiasm with that, besides I might wait till he actually gets the Democratic nomination, so we can proudly wear it till inauguration :-)

The other day I saw this on ebay that says 'Bush makes me cry' ooohhh how cute. Now I want it to say 'Bush makes me cry' and in the back 'Obama makes me smile'. It would be supercute on my Anjali.

Edwina the Emu

This is one of our favorite books with a funny story about a 'shoulda stayed at home Emu mom' (we all know that story huh?)
While we were in Tampa this week we stopped by the Lowry zoo, which was supposed to be the top rated zoo for children; and it really was very child friendly and fun. We made our way to the Wallaroo station with all animals from Australia and Anjali was delighted to see a pair of Emus. She immediately recognized them and called them Edwina and Edward (like in the book). She went close to the fence and shouted "come HERE Edwina" and was yelling "yeek" (the sound they make in the wild I guess) to no response from the birds. They are great big birds who cant fly and apparently cant walk backwards.

Nostalgia

Yes we are back and all over with jet lag. I should be blogging about our traveling experiences (and I will get to that), but I am still trying to get my head around all of it. It was too much for words. And many changes and transitions have happened since then. One of them being that as of today Anjali is FOUR days into weaning from the boo boos (yes, my breasts!) I know... she will turn 2.5 years tomorrow and we decided it was time! Also, everyone in Sri Lanka found it very strange that I was STILL breast feeding her. So I was bracing myself for a long transition especially at sleep time. But surprisingly, a good chat with her about how she is now a big girl was all it took. She still asks for it when we cuddle and I offer her cows milk, juice or food instead.
She took to sleeping with some familiar songs (Doi, doi; hush little baby and Kumbaya). But I felt like I needed to expand my repertoire and sought some Sinhala songs that our parents might have sung.
The most familiar to me was 'Handa pane' although I was fumbling for words after the first verse. The logical next step was to google it. I found you can download the ring tone for it! But I like my ring tone as everyone with T-mobile has it too, if I don't feel like answering I can easily pretend its not my phone! Then I remembered this site where I go when I feel homesick or in need of a baila fix - http://www.sinhalajukebox.org
Turns out they also have lyrics for famous songs though I didn't find the ones to 'Handa pane', sung by Sunil Santha. I am trying to do my best to transcribe it. Anjali has grown fond of these too, and I am teaching her the meaning of them. I love it when she says 'Amma can you sing a Sri Lanka song?' When I was a child and visiting my grandparents, my Athatha would ask Aththamma or Ammi to sit at the piano and play 'Olu pippila', turns out this is also a Sunil Santha song. I hope Anjali will take at least one Sinhalese song through the rest of her life.

Back to the sewing machine

I LOVE to sew! But dont get as much time to do it as I'd like. But since the arrival of baby Ranesh I've found some excuses to go to the fabulous Fabric Depot (the largest store on the west coast) and ooh and aah at the fabrics. I rekindled my love with a project to sew a rather simple blanket for Ranesh, but while I was there I found more cool fabric and walked away with a bunch of patterns and fabrics to sew for Anjali.

Ranesh's blanket is really cute. I found this fabric called 'Rescue me' with fire engines and police cars, and the the softest micro fleece... I love the luxurious micro fleece available now. The combination looks so great and warm. I also sew them big as the standard crib blanket is really small when kids are beyond about 6 months.I also grabbed some corduroy fabrics to make a skirt for Anjali. I decided to do a three tier with solid red and red cherry print. This was really fun and quite easy. And here it is on my busy model!